YOUR LACK OF PLANNING DOES NOT = MY LACK OF AGILITY

Tell me if any of this sound familiar: 'What do you mean you don't want to use this planned sprint to work on this [insert 'urgent' request here].... you're just not being agile." "Of course we can change 50% of the presentation at the last minute because [insert name of some big-wig "enabler"] finally looked at it .... we're agile, right?"

WRONG!

I am up to my nose ring in people using agility as a proxy for LACK OF PLANNING.

Choosing not to (or when not to) drop your work to address other people's poor planning does not revoke your AGILISTA club member card. In fact, it is a sign of advanced agile-dom. Here's why.

AGILITY IS A DISCIPLINE.

You don't have to swing a kitten farther than Lean methodology with its ixsty-skillion (highly effective) procedures to understand that. Or look at time-boxing or 90 day retrospectives or backlog prioritisation. I could go on. And on! All of these many agile elements actually provide clear disciplined approaches and structures within which we can unleash the creativity hounds to bring game-changing solutions.

Sure, we want flexibility to be able to pivot quickly based on market changes and customer needs. But "oops I forgot until yesterday" is not a market change or a customer need. It's just bad planning.

The good news? Within agile ways of working, we're empowered to prioritize for impact. (aka just say "NO"!) And this is where DISCERNMENT comes in. Does the "oops" negatively impact customers or patients? And if yes, does it do so more than potential delays in the work you ruthlessly prioritized and are delivering thoughtfully yet speedily using proven agile disciplines ( there’s that word again!)? The choice is your in these situations, my friends, but on this day.... Wednesday the 26th day of the month of August in this (cray-cray) year of 2020 ... let us solemnly vow to stop letting others' poor planning derail us from our most impactful work!

#saynotoagileshaming #agilityisadiscipline #planmoreshameless